The Books By Mark Twain Have Captivated Audiences Of All Ages. The Prince And The Pauper Shares The Timeless Message Of Playing The Role Which You Were Born To Perform

For example, Twain opens the novel by describing the events surrounding the birth of two different people during this time period. He first describes the birth of Edward, the prince of Wales.

When Prince Edward is born all of England rejoices:

"There was no talk in all England but of the new baby, Edward Tudor, Prince of Wales, who lay lapped in silks and satins, unconscious of all this fuss, and not knowing that great lords and ladies were tending over him-and not caring either...All England had so longed for him, hoped for him, and prayed God for him, that now he had really come, the people went mad for joy."

An interesting historical note here is the fact that Prince Edward was the heir that Henry VIII hurled the entire country into chaos over, starting with his divorce from Queen Catherine of Aragon to the Act of Supremacy.

Another note on King Henry VIII that Mark Twain tastefully portrays is that, in the eyes of Edward, the king is a very loving father. But Edward is surprised to learn when he is playing Tom's part, that the king is not liked by his subjects for his already mentioned faults. 

Tom Canty is a poor pauper boy. Although he is just as important in God's eyes as Edward, his birth is dreaded by all those surrounding him in the poor house in which he lives. 

Mark Twain describes his house as:

"...small, decayed, and rickety, but it was packed full of wretchedly poor families. Canty’s tribe occupied a room on the third floor...The mother and father had a sort of bedstead in the corner; but Tom, his grandmother, and his two sisters, Bet and Nan were not restricted-they had all the floor to themselves, and might sleep where they chose."

Tom Canty is a dreamer. He often dreams he is a royal prince. Anyone can imagine his joy when, by mere chance, he sees a real life prince - Prince Edward! 

Edward gets carried away with the tales of fun and mud that Tom tells him. It is then that he talks Tom into trading his rags for Edward’s fine garments. 

This is where Edward makes his great mistake.

Tom and Edward are only going to play the roles of each other for a day but then everything gets confused and they both get dragged into a lifestyle which they know nothing about for not one day but for many. Will they ever get back to their proper places?

This is a story of comedy and tragedy, faithfulness and betrayal, friendship and hatred, prisons and royal palaces. 

Although Edward’s parts are more amusing as he is going about claiming his royalty and being laughed at and mocked, Tom’s parts are also very entertaining as he has never had luxury and does silly things like crack nuts with the royal seal and things of that sort. 

This is a great story and, like all books by Mark Twain, it is hilarious!

In this story, Princess Anneliese's kingdom meets near ruin when the mining fails. She is then engaged to King Dominick, the king of a neighboring kingdom in hope that their union will save the kingdom. Anneliese is not too keen on getting married to someone she has never met but is willing to do so for the good of her kingdom.

The queen's advisor, Preminger, had other plans to remedy the kingdom's disaster. He is disappointed to find that the queen went ahead and made her own plans for Anneliese's future. Preminger decides that more drastic measures than stealing the gold from the mines must be employed to get him on the throne. 

Anneliese's tutor, Julian, has his own reasons for regretting her engagement. In a burst of generosity, he brings Anneliese into the village to "have the first and last taste of freedom before getting married next week".

While in town, she meets Erika, a young woman who has spent her entire life trying to work off her parents' debts to a wealthy dressmaker. At their meeting, both are astounded to find how closely they resemble one another.

When Preminger kidnaps the princess with intentions of playing the hero and marrying her when he restores her to her mother, Julian knows that something is not quite right with Preminger's behavior. He finds Erika and gets her to dress up like Princess Anneliese to buy him time to find out what is going on. 

But time starts running short when Preminger makes a drastic change of plans, fixing his focus on the queen and presenting himself as the only way of saving the kingdom.

Meanwhile, Erika and King Dominick are falling in love during their short meeting while she is disguised as the princess. Can Julian and Anneliese escape Preminger's evil plan and make things right before the kingdom is ruined?

A wonderful cartoon that both the boys and girls will enjoy with fun music, funny characters, and amazing plot twists!